Making Things

"One thing that we hope people take away from this show is that making things connects you to each other, to yourself, and to a bigger world and we all kind of need that right now."

~ Amy Poehler, Making It

I love watching other artists create ~ seeing which materials

call to them, watching how they build and construct,

solving their own intricate problems with color on the page.

So I was excited to watch Making It ~ a show dedicated to watching

real artists in action as they complete creative challenges and detail

their process along the way.

I thought my son would like it too, seeing different artistic visions

come to life ~ how they connect ideas and stories into tangible things

and connect them to the world around them.

So we sat down to watch an episode. Within the first 15 minutes,

my son jumped up off the couch and declared, "I just really want to

go make something." And he headed to our dining room table.

We have all kinds of papers, paints, and pens in buckets and drawers

in our dining room. The table has become less about sharing meals

(although that's also important) and more about sharing ideas and

bringing them to life.

He spent the next hour sketching, drawing and sewing,

getting quiet as he usually does when he creates ~

totally in tune with himself.

I love watching him create.

His eyes wide, his fingers moving quickly,

sometimes gently biting his lip, eager to get the flood of ideas in his

head out into the materials in front of him. It's truly magical.

And I love how watching just a few minutes of this show set him in motion.

What I didn't mention, was how he initially didn't seem interested at

all in watching it. He asked to watch Kitchen Nightmares

instead, which we started, but then both quickly agreed was too

negative and depressing. He still wasn't ready for Making It, and asked

to watch Top Chef Jr. He liked that, but seemed more interested in

discovering the age of the kids participating and wondered who was

going to clean up all the messes as opposed to being inspired

by the recipes the contestants came up with.

We watched the entire episode and he never jumped up or

asked about cooking. I told my husband,

"That's how we know he's an artist and not a chef."

I read somewhere that you have to figure out what your kids are

passionate about and support them in that endeavor in any way you

can. So that's what we're doing with our son. Making sure he has

plenty of tools and time and space for creating, because when he

releases what's in his imagination, it's such a magnificent thing, and

something I truly believe has the potential to change the world.